According to <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-277">NASA scientists</a>, the Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, becoming the first spacecraft to leave the <a href="/our_solar_system/solar_system.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">solar system</a>. The space probe is about 19 billion km from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Sun</a>. <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Voyager 1 and 2</a> were launched in 1977 on a <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">mission</a> that flew them both by <a href="/jupiter/jupiter.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Jupiter</a> and <a href="/saturn/saturn.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Saturn</a>, with Voyager 2 continuing to <a href="/uranus/uranus.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Uranus</a> and <a href="/neptune/neptune.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Neptune</a>. Voyager 2 is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 15 billion km away from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Sun</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>How did life evolve on <a href="/earth/earth.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Earth</a> during the <a href="/earth/past/Archean.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Archean</a>, when the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Sun</a> was about 25% weaker than today? The Earth should have been <a href="/earth/polar/cryosphere_glacier1.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">glaciated</a>, if <a href="/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">greenhouse</a> gas concentration was the same as today. <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=10798">Researchers</a> studying the <a href="/physical_science/physics/atom_particle/isotope.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">isotopic</a> signatures of Earth's early atmosphere in <a href="/earth/geology/rocks_intro.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">rocks</a> from Northern Australia have ruled out high levels of <a href="/physical_science/chemistry/nitrogen_molecular.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">nitrogen</a> as a possible way to increase warming from <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">atmospheric</a> <a href="/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">carbon dioxide</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Manchester University</em></small></p>A <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article">study</a> of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong correlation between <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/interior/eruptions.html">volcanic eruptions</a> and extreme cold weather in Ireland over a 1200 year period, from 431 to 1649. During this time up to 48 volcanic eruptions were identified in Greenland ice core records through deposition of volcanic sulfate in annual layers of ice. Find out more about <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/geosphere_volcanoes_influence_on_climate.html">volcanoes and climate</a>.<p><small><em>Image Courtesy of Marco Fulle</em></small></p>New observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft provide support for the hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed (shown in red) polar craters. Areas where polar deposits of ice imaged by Earth-based radar are shown in yellow.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory</em></small></p><p>You don't normally see <a href="/space_weather/space_weather.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">space weather</a> forecasted on the evening news, but it does impact life on <a href="/earth/earth.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Earth</a> in many ways. What are the threats posed from all of these natural disasters and how can we work to mitigate those threats beforehand? </p> <p>Check out the materials about natural disasters in <a href="/earth/natural_hazards/when_nature_strikes.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">NBC Learn Videos</a>, and their earth system science connections built up by the related secondary classroom activities.</p><p><small><em>NBC Learn</em></small></p>An artist's rendering of the moment of impact of a massive <a href="/our_solar_system/meteors/meteors.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">meteorite</a> at the end of the Cretaceous (at the end of the <a href="/earth/geology/hist_mesozoic.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">Mesozoic Era</a>). Many scientists have concluded for decades that a meteorite four to six kilometers in diameter impacted the Earth at this time, resulting in a <a href="/earth/past/KTextinction.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">mass extinction of dinosaurs</a> and many other life forms. Recent research suggests that perhaps <a href="/headline_universe/olpa/chicxulub.html&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/=/earth/climate/Sun">massive volcanic eruptions</a> may be been responsible for the extinction.<p><small><em>Courtesy of Don Davis, NASA</em></small></p>


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